TIME CAPSULE
Time Capsule
Letter to the Future Generation
Dear Future Reader/s,
As you read pass this electronic mail, perhaps you are using a highly sophisticated gadget and you might need a document translator to be able to read through this text. Notwithstanding, I would like to share with you a common life in our times.
I am a wife and the mother to six beautiful children, with two sets of twins included. I have three daughters and three sons ranging from ages six to twenty. My days are full of excitement as one can only imagine. Every day is different with me taking the kids to school where they have different activities. I still manage to keep a strict schedule with lots of support from my family and friends. This has left me time to continue my education at a later time in life.
I choose to do college partially online in order to take care of my family and keep a leveled head and not feeling intimidated by the younger generation attending the traditional classroom settings. I intend to further my education by attending law school and become a practicing attorney specializing in criminal law. I choose criminal law because I personally have friends and family members that may have been ignorant to the law and legal system and have become in some sense, its victims. I hope to be the advocate for those who are not able to afford proper legal representation and become lost into the legal system unfairly.
Ours is a very challenging part of the times. This is the global economy and one is not just challenged by the normal chores and daily routines. We are challenged by the notion that ours is a very competitive world and that we need to excel or else face a turbulent tide that we cannot be good enough. We need to earn a decent living or else we cannot send our children to decent schools where a very high quality education can prepare them for a knowledge-based economy.
Modern times can be tough, we just have to move. We need to be always on the go. Most of the time, we rely on devices, gadgets and instruments to make life better and quicker. Hence, we take the light trains and drive fast and ecological cars. Since we are globally mobile, at one time, we can be here in the United States and tomorrow we can be in Asia or Latin America.
However, we also have fun. We enjoy music, sports and entertainment just like the way you do. We have heralded the digital technologies and we have enjoyed virtually all the exchanges of music, movies, books, and knowledge through the blink of our computers or nay other mobile device. We do not leave home without our mobile phones and tablets. We enjoy vacations in all parts of the world especially in the most pristine parts of nature.
We strive to be better people; just the same way you aspire for greater goals in life. We fight injustice, inequality and starvation. We also try to salvage the ravages of the environment as outcomes of the past generations’ abuses and exploitation. We also try to bring you a better society in terms of social equity and good governance. We aspire to control the greed of our more competitive institutions. Lastly, we try to destroy all devastating weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear bombs. We also try to reduce the global population. Hence, please remember that we went beyond our own frailties to bring out the best for the future.
Moral Relativism in These Days
A general decision making and morality example in our present culture is the concept of divorce. Many couples in many societies around the world have been separating legally and this decision (or process) is seen as neither right nor wrong in most cultures. Divorce is legally, socially and morally accepted as a status quo.
This falls under moral relativism which is often an ideal stance in the globally relative culture and conscience in our times. While the Christian standards continue to be the foundation for civil law, most people now view divorce not as an absolute wrong (Janaro & Altshuler, 2011). They view it in a case to case basis.
What is Happiness for Me
Personally, I consider happiness as being free from pain. This is due to the fact that I do not want pain and I fear pain. I dread going to the doctors or being injected or subjected to harsh conditions and struggles. Hence, I idealized a life without pain as a happy and a peaceful life. I also like childhood where one is innocent and the idea of pain has been distant because our loved ones often shield us away from it. I think that I correspond to the epicurean idea of happiness, which explains it as avoiding pain (Janaro & Altshuler, 2011).
My Love for Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is very significant to me. I have loved this sonnet since junior high school. It captures the true meaning of unconditional love, which I guess is the noblest love there is in humankind. This item is worth preserving a hundred or thousand years hence because it speaks about the virtue of love as a universal truth. It reflects the present culture of optimism. While a lot of people may have become jaded, most of us, even hundreds of years past Shakespeare, still hopes and pins for true love. It simply says that “love endures” (“Shakespeare’s Sonnets,” 2012). I believe that this greatest truth shall live on many years from now.
My Favorite Art Form
I chose Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe as a classic example of pop art, an art movement which was very popular in the second half of the twentieth century (Delves, 2012). I specifically chose Andy Warhol since I am an avid fan of Pop Art. I believe that Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe’s iconic visual image, is the epitome of Pop Art as a global art movement and as a cultural ethos. This is a hallmark artwork for the next geenration to see. This is a very fresh face of modernism. It shunned from the typical "high art" art subjects such as classical history, morality, mythology, etc. (Yau, p. 27). As the pop artists elevate the contemporary images to high art, it also signify a new way of dealing with culture. This signals the commodification of art which the previous art movement seems to be discreet about. Popular culture then reaches the status of fine art. This has become one of the most recognizable styles of modern art.
Beatles and Me
I would choose the Beatles’ songs or collection of songs such as Hey Jude, Imagine, Black Bird, We Can Work It Out, Nowhere Man, Strawberry Fields, In My Life, etc. These songs are special to me because these songs were loved my grandparents, my parents, and our generation. I like the simple melody and very significant lyrics. The youth now also knows these songs by way of revivals. The important thing about these songs is that they are classics. They endure and go beyond time. Their music and lyrics live on forever. They also have social relevance such as John Lennon’s “Imagine.” I cannot imagine a significant work in music history without the noted songs of this well loved British band. They convey that our culture has remained passive to changes and that they always have the tendency to patronize the mainstream culture. The good thing about these songs is that they can withstand the mainstream culture and even surpass the new songs our younger generation now admires.
The Genius of Stanley Kubrick
The futuristic film, Space Odyssey 2001, which was directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a profound, prophetic and visionary delight. Kubrick astounded the film industry with this classic. The film was really way ahead of its class in terms of artistry, visuals, special effects and overall cinematic impact. The true subject of the movie is the exploration of the unknown. All of the four episodes of the classic film dealt with the exploration of the unknown from pre historic times to the more advanced space time. Space Odyssey achieved a magnanimous presentation of space travel which bordered between realistic and fictional. The production design, visual, and audio effects and the overall cinematography were all splendid. This film has very intriguing imagery of outer space and space travel.
This has been a milestone in film making since this was the time when humanity was just attempting to reach the moon. A year after the movie was made; man has just stepped into the moon. Hence, the appeal of Kubrick’s visuals was very enticing for the film audience at that time. I think this has made the greatest impact in the world of cinema. I truly believe that future generations must see this film.
Star Wars as Pop Culture
Star Wars toys has become a major representation in our popular culture. The toy stores will never be the same without the images of Yoda, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy, Darth, Ben, amongo thers. They have been here with us for lamost twenty five years. The genius behind the movie even gave us osmuch more with the concep tof prequel, where the past of the film’s story where revealed to a hwole new geenraitonof audiences. The ffects in terms of cinemtaic and pop culture were simply magnanimous.
The first Star Wars figures or toys were prodcued in the 1970’s and they are continually expanded until now. In the middle of the 1990's, Star Wars figures were again reproduced as the new "Star Wars: Episode 1" movie was shown (Salmon & Babitsky, 2002). Many other toys ensued after Epsidoe 2 and 3. I beleiev that this sci-fi film will be nejoyed even by future geenrations because it is a major prototype of how we have produced a digital and scientific movie about the other worlds.
Conclusion/Summary
Our generation has produced many exemplary works in music, arts, literature, films, pop culture, among others. It showcases the best of our times and it proves that many of our generation’s masterpieces and geniuses are very provocative and intriguing. In the same way, they are very representative of our thoughts, feelings and actions.
It is also interesting to note that a major part of what we love now and consider as our own were products of our forefather’s geniuses. It also goes to show how we have come to acknowledge their contributions to our humanity and how we respect what they have bequeathed to us.
I would to stress that our present generation has witnessed a ground breaking experience in terms of what humanity is limited to achieve. We have reached the moon, launched rocket ships and nuclear missiles, patronized Madonna and Michael Jackson, lived by Einstein’s works, saw Gandhi and Thatcher, witnesses the first African American president, among others. We have opened a new twilight in the era of humanity and this is what we will especially bring to the future generations.
References:
Delves Broughton, Philip. (2012). The Art of the Sale. New York, NY: The Penguin Press.
Janaro, J. & Altshuler, T. (2011). The Art of Being Human. Thousan Oaks: Pearson Longman.
Salmon, J. & Babitsky, T. (2002). “Star Wars.” Pop Culture Store Website. Retrieved on December 14, 2012 from, http://www.popculturestore.com/.
“Shakespeare’s Sonnets.” (2012). Sonnet 116. Sparknotes Website. Retrieved on December 14, 2012 from, .
. (1993). In the Realm of Appearances: The Art of Andy Warhol. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press.
